


Glory

by voxmyriad



Series: Commander Cody Week 2k21 [4]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Impending Torture but no actual torture, Slurs against non-clones?, The Origin of Purge Commander Cody, This Is The Dark One
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-25 01:55:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30081705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voxmyriad/pseuds/voxmyriad
Summary: Cody had thought anything would be better than training conscripts on Kamino. He was wrong.
Series: Commander Cody Week 2k21 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2208858
Comments: 4
Kudos: 23





	Glory

Every damn day was something new, different, and infuriating. These _conscripts_ were _wretched_ : they couldn't shoot, they couldn't run or climb, they had no grasp of battle strategy or teamwork. They couldn't do a kriffing thing as well as he'd been able to do by the time he was eight years old. Not even worth calling 'em shinies.

Every damn day, Cody missed his brothers. Fewer and fewer of them still walked the halls of Kamino, but the Empire made good use of the Kaminoan training facility, and Cody worked the conscripts harder and harder and despaired.

He hadn't dwelled much on death. He'd assumed it would come in the form of a lucky blaster bolt, or making the sacrifice play to get the rest of his men out alive. He hadn't thought he'd be stuck on this waterlogged rock playing nursemaid to a bunch of natborns from across the galaxy, most of whom had never even _met_ one another before arriving on Kamino for training. How was he supposed to forge any kind of bond between troopers when all he had to work with were a bunch of reconditioned strangers?

Yes, the creche was in use again, full of natborn infants conscripted from their homeworlds and looked after by brothers, and _those_ had potential, but he'd never see it. They wouldn't be grown before he was retired. Right now? Hopeless. _Hopeless._

"Do it again," he barked into the mic as the exhausted squad finished up the Citadel sim. Not a terrible time by natborn standards, _abysmal_ by comparison to the clones. "You'd all be decommed if it were up to me," he added, disgusted, and snapped off the mic, stalking off before anyone could catch up to him. The sim floor needed to be reset anyway, he had a good ten minutes before he'd have to watch a performance like that again.

Cody wound up in a hallway lined with windows. The eternal storm of Kamino raged calmly outside, a familiar sight, one of the only familiar sights left to him. A pair of troopers passed him as he stood and watched the waves, but the tilts of their heads as they nodded to him marked them as brothers. Which brothers, he didn't know, not in that featureless white armor. Some of the old clonelang still lingered in finger-twitches, abbreviations, and pauses in speech, but it was dying out. They were all dying out.

"Commander!"

He didn't turn as the messenger hurried down the hallway to catch up with him. He'd heard the call a few times, but he hadn't felt the need to stop until he was ready to stop. The black-uniformed man was out of breath by the time he caught up, and Cody didn't hide the disapproval in his stare. Not a word of acknowledgment was offered. He just waited.

"—ah, yes. Commander, I have your new orders."

One brow rose a fraction. New orders? He hadn't heard about any new orders. What was being demanded of him now? Had they conscripted a new batch of miserable beings for him to train? "Well?"

The messenger held out the datastick and Cody waited a few beats before he reached out and took it between two fingers. Then he turned back to the window, a wordless dismissal.

Once he was alone again, he turned the datastick over in his fingers. New orders needed to be looked at immediately. It would save him needing to watch another lackluster run. Spirits just a little higher, Cody sent a message to the other trainers that he wasn't interested in watching any more travesties today and went to his office. It doubled as his quarters. Unlike some of these Imperials, he wasn't interested in _frills._

Slotting the datastick in place, Cody skimmed the new orders: a transfer.

**/Orders begin  
New designation: PC-2224  
Effective Immediately: PC-2224 transfer to _Executor_  
Purge Commander 2224 will report directly for personal reconditioning once aboard.  
Authority: Lord Vader  
Orders end/**

Cody stared at the glowing yellow words. A transfer off Kamino meant a chance to do something _meaningful_ again. But why would he need reconditioning? He knew how to command men who knew what they were doing. Still, it was in the orders, directly from Lord Vader himself. He wasn't about to _disobey_.

_—oldiers follow orders, good soldiers follow orders, good soldiers fol—_

Purge Commander Cody submitted his acknowledgment of his new orders and made arrangements for his immediate transportation to the _Executor_. With Lord Vader's authority, he was able to commandeer a shuttle and set out immediately, and although the trip wasn't far, Cody could feel his impatience mounting. He recognized the sensation: it was the same feeling he got when the 212th was about to drop out of hyperspace and he'd have a _battle_ to fight, with brothers at his back, his Jedi General—

—no. Best not to think about that. The Jedi were traitors. He'd done the right thing, they'd all done the right thing. He'd have counted the men around him that day as some of the best he'd ever served with, not a single order questioned. Good soldiers follow orders, after all.

Purge Troopers. They _had_ to be the best. He wondered—he hoped—he'd find some brothers among them.

The shuttle dropped out of hyperspace and Cody's breath caught. The _Executor_ drifted in space like the blade of a knife, and he'd be serving on her. This was beyond an honor. It would be a privilege.

Landing the ship in the bay, Cody disembarked and reported in. The duty officer informed him he was to meet Lord Vader in Reconditioning. Odd, he'd been told to report for reconditioning, but he hadn't expected Lord Vader to be personally involved. Reconditioning was a routine procedure in the Empire.

The reconditioning bay on Kamino was all lights and screens for testing, but this room was nothing but black walls and light bars. A table stood upright in the middle, human-shaped. Straps lined it at the ankles, thighs, wrists, biceps, waist, chest, neck, head. But he had no more time to study it, because a sweep of black fabric caught his attention.

Lord Vader.

Cody snapped to attention immediately with another little thrill of excitement. Just a reconditioning, and then he'd be sent into the field again, allowed to feel _useful_ , to make a _difference_. "Lord Vader."

"Commander Cody." Cody hadn't heard his name in any official capacity since the Order had come down, and he felt a spike of surprise to hear it here. "Mm, yes. I know who you are. I requested you _personally_ , Commander."

Lord Vader's voice was smooth, emotionless, but still somehow conveying . . . anticipation? For the first time since he'd read his new orders and known he'd be leaving Kamino, Cody's excitement faltered. A little scrape of fear dragged itself down his spine as Vader stared implacably at him, then gestured elegantly to the horror in the middle of the room.

"I have a great many plans for you, Purge Commander 2224, before you will be fit to lead my troops. Let us not delay any longer. For the . . . _glory_ . . . of the Empire."

Through a dry mouth, sand coating his throat, dread pooling in the pit of his stomach, Cody repeated, "For the glory of the Empire" . . . and stepped forward.

He hoped he'd never see a brother again.

**Author's Note:**

> This one was a delight to work on. I would say I'm sorry, but . . .
> 
> I'm not.
> 
> So I won't :)
> 
> Find me on tumblr at [voxmyriad](https://voxmyriad.tumblr.com) if you want some tag-yelling about clones!


End file.
